This is a great story I ran across on Copenhagenize, of what the title says (a woman bicycling to the hospital pregnant and with contractions), but also with an ironic poster added at the bottom.
If you live in Denmark it’s not unusual to have heard stories of pregnant women riding their bicycle to the hospital with contractions. We’ve all heard the stories. Today, however, Copenahgenize is thrilled to provide some photographic documentation. Our friend Ole of “I read Copenhagenize and sold the family car” fame hooked us up with two friends of his, John and Lina. The time came for Lina to give birth – the contractions were getting closer together – and the couple, who don’t own a car (like 70.9% of Copenhageners) headed out to their bicycles. John and Lina are actually from Montreal but live in Copenhagen.
John and Lina have kindly allowed us to blog the photos that John took on the way to the hospital. It was only 1.5 km away but Lina had to stop a few times because the contractions were strong. The above photo was taken at 03:58. Head leaning on her pre-packed bag.
This photo was taken at 04:04. So the contractions were six minutes apart. I’ll never know how it feels but having two kids I have a pretty good idea.
Like most bicycle stories, it all ended well. They arrived at the labour ward of the hospital at 04:15 and baby Viggo made his entrance into the world at 07:19.
We’re absolutely thrilled for John and Lina and they have our warmest congratulations on the birth of Viggo. And thanks to them all for letting us share their fantastic bicycle experience.
Ironically, there is this poster hanging around Berlin at the moment, says one of our readers, Michael. An election poster for the liberal party. It reads:
Q: “Why isn’t the FDP (liberals) not sharing the dream of a car free city?”
A: “Because no woman in the world wants to ride to the delivery room by bike”
Cycling whilst pregnant is virtually prescribed here in Denmark and there is no reason not to do it. Beats walking by a long shot, easy on the back and it increases your mobility radius while giving you decent exercise. Above is a book called Pregnancy and Exercise, written by a doctor. The cover image says it all.
Above is my lovely ex with our boy and 8 months pregnant with our girl. We actually lived across the street from the hospital so getting there was a walkable cinch. The midwife clinic was also across the street and there is always a long line of pregnant women popping by for a check-up. Here are some photographs of cycling pregnant in Copenhagen:
In Washington DC, phase one of the tar sands campaign has just come to an end, and 1,252 North Americans have been arrested in a massive civil disobedience campaign. This historic groundswell was focused on stopping the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline — but it also sent a larger message that people everywhere are willing to take bold action to move our planet beyond fossil fuels.
The courage on display in DC has been inspiring, but I’ve been just as cheered by the help that has poured in from around the world. On Sunday, activists in front of the White House held a banner with a huge number on it: 618,428. That’s how many people around the world who signed the “Stop the Tar Sands” mega-petition to President Obama, with signatures from many350.org supporters, as well as members of Avaaz, Greenpeace, and dozens of other groups.
But this movement does more than sign petitions: many of you stood strong in front of the White House risking arrest, and protesters on every continent have picketed outside embassies and consulates. That makes sense, for global warming is the one problem that affects everyone everywhere.
And the next moment to demonstrate the power of the global movement is September 24 for Moving Planet – the massive day of climate action that will unite people all over the world. We’ve heard news of amazing actions from every corner of the earth — from a massive bike rally in the Philippines to an incredible eco-festival in Philadelphia. I truly can’t wait to see the pictures pour in.
But here’s why it’s important: we’re not just a movement that opposes things, we’re also a movement that dreams of what’s coming. And we don’t just dream, we also transform those dreams into reality. On September 24, on bike and on foot and on boards, we’re going to point the way towards that future. By days’ end, we’ll have shown why the bicycle is more glamorous than the car, and why the people have the potential to be more powerful than the polluters.
On some days fighting global warming means swallowing hard, mustering your courage, and making a sacrifice — other days it means getting all your friends up in the saddles of their bikes to have some fun and help move the planet forward.
September 24 is the second kind of day; it’s going to be powerful, it’s going to be beautiful, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out. Click here to join in.
P.S. If you’re curious about what’s coming up for phase two of the tar sands campaign, check out the announcement.
P.P.S. To see the kind of passion and commitment on display in DC, check out this beautiful photo album, and get inspired for all the movement to come.
Check out this cool story on a solar-powered dryer from our sister site CleanTechnica, followed by some other top green living stories of the last day or so:
Photo: Nicholas Morat via Gothamist
I've recently returned to cycling. I used to ride a 10-speed everywhere back in college (I thankfully lived in the uber-bike-friendly town of Isla Vista, CA), but had been reluctant to brave the more aggressive, chaotic, and car-choked roads of Brooklyn. Nonetheless, after a few years as a mostly-satisfied pedestrian, I was drawn back to the bike. But this week, there were a couple blunt, disturbing reminders of why I was so cautious to rejoin the cyclists' ranks: in separate incidents, two bicycl...Read the full story on TreeHugger
But, one of the things I strive for here on Planetsave is finding ways to help people make positive changes in their lives, not just talk about how cool green living is.
So, to help break down the mental barrier to bicycling for transportation purposes, which truly is the biggest barrier for most people, I thought I’d drop a few tips on you. These are things that helped me get started long before I was a bicycle enthusiast.
If you don’t have a bike, don’t concern yourself with getting the best bike in the world right off the bat, and then put off doing so forever. Getting a decent bike for cheap is fine, and then you can upgrade later when you have a better idea of what your preferences are and what you’d like.
Go on a bike ride just a little outside your normal range. My “normal range” when I started biking for transportation purposes was based on my experience bicycling as a kid. So, it was just the small neighborhood around me. This is likely the normal range for the large majority of non-transportation bikers. I felt a little like a bird leaving the nest when I finally decided to bike to college, which was basically in my neighborhood, too, and then to work (which was a slow 40-minute bike ride away) — I felt nervous and excited at the same time. I quickly realized how easy bicycling outside my neighborhood was and realized I felt much better bicycling than driving (of course, that didn’t make me stop driving on numerous occasions, for some reason, but that’s a story for another day). Bottom line — just try going out of your normal range a bit, especially for some useful purpose. It is empowering and interesting.
Bicycling doesn’t need to be a strenuous activity. In the U.S., many bicyclists bike super fast and treat it like a sport. No problem, you can have that approach if you like it. But I don’t think that will ever be an approach that works for the majority of people. I have always been a take-it-easy, enjoy-the-ease-and-ride-of-a-bicycle, and don’t-work-up-a-sweat kind of bicyclist. Bicycling is “the most efficient mode of transport” — it uses less energy per mile than walking. Even in hot and sunny Florida (where I’m from), you don’t have to work up a sweat bicycling (sometimes, that is). It can actually cool you off, as you exert very little energy and get a cool breeze in return. In the Netherlands, where I lived and studied for 5 months or so, everyone bikes the take-it-easy way, and they are probably the leading country in the Western world for bicycling — no coincidence, I would say. The Amish, another bicycle-loving population, also ride in this way (the only bicyclists I would ever pass on my 40-minute rides to work were Amish on big tricycles).
Go on a bike ride with friends. As with most things, the thing that gets many people (probably most people) to start bicycling is someone they know taking them on a ride, or encouraging them to go on a ride (yes, this is how I got started bicycling for transportation purposes at the age of 19). We are influenced by our friends. Also, bicycling is quite a fun thing to do with friends. Get together with some friends and go on a recreational or utilitarian bike ride… go on a bike ride to the park for a picnic… go on a bike ride to the grocery store or a bike ride to the beach. .. try it out and see where it leads you.
I would bet money that if you tried out these suggestions you would see bicycling in a different light and might even become an avid bicyclists, improving your health and whole life along the way. Ready to go?
If you’ve got more tips, please drop them in the comments below. Would love to hear what others think are some good tips to get started bicycling.
Activists around the world are doing participating in great action related to transportation, the tar sands, climate change, animals, nature, food, and more. Check out these stories:
Photo: good
You can fight City Hall, sometimes. In this lovely little story, a Toronto woman decided to paint and spruce up an old bicycle that had been locked to a pole and abandoned for ages.
In an act of civic disobedience, she painted it neon red and planted the basket. Result: a parking ticket saying it had to be removed or destroyed. But brave citizens revolted and campaigned and protested...and out of that grew The Good Bike Project.
...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Just ran across this great infographic on bicycling facts and the future of bicycling on our sister site sustainablog and, of course, wanted to share it on here. It’s the feature green living “story” of the day. The infographic is from our friends over at Well Home Energy Audit. Check it out and enjoy!
And, now, here are some more top green living stories of the past couple days.
Comic by Rosscott
So you're cycling along and a driver zips by, chewing you out for some terrible deed you've committed just for being on the road on two wheels instead of four. What do you say or do that gets a dig in at the driver without drawing you into an argument or potentially bad situation? A comic by Rosscott has the answers. Click through to check them out. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Toronto, Canada is one city that has embraced bicycling quite a bit and has a young bike-sharing program in place. Combining those with some good car-sharing programs as well, a number of citizens are now saving thousands by dropping one or more of their own cars and driving less. A recent Canadian Business piece featured such residents as well as some of the car-sharing and bike-sharing options in the city.
Here are some more top green living posts of the past few days or so:
Check out this cool & beautiful Flying Pigeon bicycles video I I just ran across on Copenhagenize. Nice one.
.. and this fun Dutch bicycling federation video.
Cool.
OK, one more — here’s one on a semi-truck driver who started a cargo-bike delivery service in Chicago to be happier, more environmentally friendly, and more time-efficient. The sweet cargo bike he shows off in the video and uses for his job is a Bullitt. Bullitts are available in Chicago at Copenhagen Cyclery and in Portland at Splendid Cycles. The film was made by Zipments.com.
So, I just, finally, subscribed to a couple large bicycle blogs — Copenhagenize and Amsterdamize. Not sure why it took me so long, but glad I finally did. Anyway, that means that today’s “top green living stories” post is going to be even more bicycle-oriented than normal (have you noticed?), as I’m digging into those blogs a bit to share same great stories and videos I missed previously.
Copenhagen and Amsterdam are quite widely considered to be the best large cities for bicycling in the world — which one is better depends on who you ask, but you’re unlikely to find someone who will tell you another large city is better. I’ve only been to Amsterdam (and that was 4 years ago), so I can’t judge just yet. Basically, though, if there’s such a thing as bicycle heaven, it probably looks something like on of these cities (or Groningen, which was a league ahead of Amsterdam in my eyes, but since its population is under 200,000 and it’s not a “global city,” it’s not often considered for the world title). So, from now on, I should have some good stuff to share from these cities that bike lovers and even those who aren’t bike lovers should be able to enjoy.
Another city that’s been climbing the ranks in the past few years in Barcelona. It’s got one of the best bike-sharing programs (or “bike hire schemes” if you’re British or used to British English) in the world, Bicing. It has just been announced that this bike-sharing program has saved 12.46 lives a year since its inception. I mentioned this before, but wanted to highlight it today. Here’s a little more:
Results Compared with car users the estimated annual change in mortality of the Barcelona residents using Bicing (n=181 982) was 0.03 deaths from road traffic incidents and 0.13 deaths from air pollution. As a result of physical activity, 12.46 deaths were avoided (benefit:risk ratio 77). The annual number of deaths avoided was 12.28. As a result of journeys by Bicing, annual carbon dioxide emissions were reduced by an estimated 9 062 344 kg.
Conclusions Public bicycle sharing initiatives such as Bicing in Barcelona have greater benefits than risks to health and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
This is pretty cool. A young dude from Pakistan with a creative spirit has created a solar-powered electric tricycle. Farrukh Khan spent about $550 to create the bike and may eventually sell it. He’s provided a “detailed photo and a design template on the Instructables website for a small monthly subscription fee ($1.95 – 3.95),” Glenn Meyers of our sister site CleanTechnica reports.
The electric tricycle is called Solaron and Khan says that it didn’t even take him three weeks to create and build it, which he did at the University of Engineering and Technology Lahore in Pakistan.
Here’s some more information from Glenn:
The unit’s battery powers a 24-volt electric motor that drives the rear wheel using a chain and sprockets. Khan reports his Solaron can travel at a top speed of around 20 mph with a rage of some 43 miles before having to recharge – not a bad deal for inner city errands.
Unlike a traditional tricycle, featuring one front wheel, the Solaron has two front wheels and one rear wheel. A T-shaped aluminum framework makes up the front of the vehicle, with the back constructed from an old bicycle frame….
Khan’s Instructables website provides this information below for making a modified trike:
Here are the trike’s components:
Chassis Solar Panel
Motor Battery
Steering Mechanism
Chain and sprocket mechanism
Charging circuit
Here is its configuration:
Length: 7 feet
Width: 3.5 feet
Height: 4.5 feet
Weight: 132 pounds or 60 kilograms
Motor: 24 Volts DC, 17 Amps
Battery: 12 Volts, 80 AH
Materials: Aluminum, Steel and Cast Iron
Cool little tricycle. Let us know if you try to build your own!
Top Green Living Stories of the Day
Here are some more cool, green stories from around the internet (mostly the Important Media network) from the past day or so.
Solar power is growing at a super fast pace these days, and despite (or maybe partly because of) the tremendous economic problems the country is facing, that is continuing. Solar PV is projected to double in the US this year, and is expected to grow 47% a year up to 2015.
“With a current project pipeline of more than 17 gigawatts (GW), the Port Washington, NY-based research firm foresees the US solar PV market growing to reach as high as 6.4 GW by 2015 depending on the scenario, a constant annual growth rate of 47%,: Andrew Burger of our sister site CleanTechnica reports.
From the same projections, the US is expected to grow from 5% of the world’s supply of solar PV to 12% by 2015, and is expected to rank third at that point, behind Germany and Italy.
Of course, projections are projections and anything can happen, but there have been strong indicators for awhile that the US would regain a bit of the ground it’s lost as a world solar leader. A report from June by Ernst & Young ranked the US #1 in the world for solar energy investment attractiveness.
Here are a ton of great green living stories from the past week or so from around the internet (other than what we’ve covered already). Enjoy! And drop more in the comments below if you have more to share.
Full disclosure: Heather is a friend of mine from college. We recently reconnected (on Facebook, of course) and she mentioned this sweet project she’s trying to get funded. Immediately, I though, “Wow, that’s an awesome project and a great fit for Planetsave!” So, here’s more on the project, via Kickstarter (where you can go to help fund it):
Another friend of mine (from blogging, not college) recently wrote about Heather’s music and environmental leaning/understanding over on sundance channel. Always the talented wordsmith, I’m going to steal a few words from him:
As a musician who tours by bike and train with the Pleasant Revolution, and also powers performances by pedaling, Heather Normandale already has a lot of green cred. But her environmentalism doesn’t stop with her methods of traveling or amplification; She also finds the inspiration for her music in the natural world. Her current project looks to the source of all life on the planet: water.
Okay, sounds a little hippie-dippy, and Heather’s music (as you can hear in the video above) definitely comes out of the American folk tradition. But just from the bit I’ve heard, this isn’t your typical amateur jug band trying to mimic Bob Dylan or Joan Baez. Heather takes inspiration from the sound of water and its ubiquity in our bodies as well as in the natural environment and blended banjo, cello, and percussion to make some really gorgeous music.
And a few words from Heather, herself, on what the project is about:
We all emerged from the water and are more than 2/3 made of this. We hold within our skin a reservoir that allows our life to exist. We [are] mirrors to each other, we carry and amplify vibrations, we are mediums of growth and can be museums of pollution and stagnation. Symbolically, water holds the creative visions of our dreams and ignites conductivity for change.
As an artist, I seek models in nature to answer my big questions. The sounds I make become the product of equations between nature’s induction of my voice and my humble mirror-like reflection of her magnificence. It has shaped me and healed me for the past 16 years as long as I have been writing and singing with strings and frets. My goal is to move beyond my own little pond through human-powered conductivity and access the reservoir of our shared oceanic roots. Through the music I make, my intention is to heal the water that embodies our existence. Heal the water ways of the earth, our bodies, and inspire an awareness that will reduce the distraction and disregard for our most valuable and most waited resource.
Beautiful stuff.
Go to the kickstarter page to learn more (and, of course, check out the video above)!
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